Metro Council finally gets its Meals for Deals back

My blogging on Metro Council's Meals for Deals goes back 6 years, when I argued that prohibiting organizations and individuals from providing CMs meals was not a be-all-end-all for guiding CMs to conduct becoming, but it is a fair expectation. The lion's share of Metro employees do not expect to be catered to by outside agencies looking to network. They either bring or buy their own meals.

So, I have never understood the resistance from CMs like Charlie Tygard, Ronnie Steine Greer, Rip Ryman, etc. to being required to provide their own food, too. It is disingenuous and naive to act like influence would not enter into the equation, but Meals for Deals is definitely not the worst CM entitlement.

Well, tonight, the council approved on third reading a bill co-sponsored by CM Tygard, CM Phil Claiborne, and CM Anthony Davis to bring Meals for Deals back:

This ordinance would allow the acceptance of meals, beverages, and food of a value not to exceed $25 from a single source in any calendar year. The acceptance of the free food or drink would be required to be disclosed on the annual benefit disclosure statement filed with the Metropolitan clerk. The provisions in the ethics ordinance regarding the acceptance of promotional items not to exceed $25 in value and the acceptance of tickets to events not to exceed $100 in value from a single source in a given year are not changed by this ordinance.

Go buy a famished council member a meal. You've got 25 days left in this calendar year to spend $25.00 on each. Some of them have been working so hard for a half decade to get this perq back.

Tennessean ramps up the "rant" again about CM Hollin, insinuates that he could be punished when he cannot be

Tennessean headline on Hollin story. And it was all yellow.

Yesterday the editors at the Tennessean changed their original headline on CM Jamie Hollin's tongue-lashing of CMs Jim Gotto and Phil Claiborne from "rant" to "curses at", which seems to me closer to the idea of journalistic objectivity. This morning, they are back to sensationalizing the story like those kids you may remember from elementary school who would not just watch a fight, but would run up and down yelling "Fight! Fight!" to pull more kids into the audience as if they were aspiring promoters.

Tennessean defines CM "rant" against council conservatives at the Courthouse

CM Jamie Hollin took it to CM Jim Gotto and CM Phil Claiborne on their killing of his resolution honoring teenagers who protested the General Assembly's "Don't Say Gay" bill after tonight's council meeting:

Outside of the chambers, Hollin confronted Claiborne, cursing at him and accusing him of objecting to the resolution on biblical grounds ....

Hollin then went to the parking garage, where he waited for the councilmen.